The Patriot Post® · We Are All East Palestine

On February 3, 2023, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio, causing a massive fire and dispersing vast quantities of chemicals into the air and soil. Residents within one mile of the catastrophe were ordered to evacuate, and emergency crews worked to extinguish the blaze. Just three days later, Norfolk Southern made the call to do a “controlled release” of the remaining materials from the derailed cars, burning them off into the air. The stated reasoning for this was to avoid an explosion.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made the rounds to residents’ homes and into the public space, sending the message that the air and soil were safe and that the detectable toxins in the area were not measured to be at levels that would be a threat to their health — an assertion that has drawn wide criticism given the degree of the fume-filled clouds that were expended from the burning of the remaining chemicals, the growing list of hazardous materials that have been identified as potential health threats, and the sheer magnitude of the wreck.

Yet it has been the position of the EPA and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine that it is safe for residents to return to their homes, as outlined in a statement posted on the governor’s website on February 8. Even in the higher ranks of public officials, the response from the federal government has been nothing short of apathetic, which has sent a clear message to the inhabitants of small-town Ohio that the devastating fallout they are now living with is not worthy of attention or compassion.

It has been frustrating to the rest of the country to watch this event go largely ignored by the same people who hung every individual COVID death on the former president; who blamed every open sneeze on the maskless and accused them of wanting to kill grandma; who bought into every photo op of leftist politicians crying at our southern border and labeled tightened immigration policies as inhumane; and who claim to be the heroic defenders of our planet in order to save lives and leave clean air and water to future generations.

These people, primarily on the left side of the political aisle, demand reparations for simply having the same skin color as someone who was enslaved 200 years ago and millions in funds to “relieve” them from the thousands in debt they paid for a useless college degree. Yet they have not uttered a single word to demand resources and assistance for their fellow citizens who are dealing with immeasurable loss of property, inoperable businesses, and homes that are essentially worthless now. These leftist “humanitarians” are not demanding housing assistance that would give East Palestine citizens the opportunity to live away from the toxic air and contaminated water.

Perhaps they don’t feel they can make that demand when so much of our country’s resources has already gone to house millions of illegal immigrants. Or they believe it would be too much to ask after stretching our tax dollars to the breaking point due to sending billions in relief funds to keep the people of Ukraine safe and healthy. Or perhaps they feel that the funds that might have otherwise been allocated to relieve their broken friends and neighbors need to be saved for more important things — like sex change surgeries for children or solar panels for hamster rescues.

The disinterest in the catastrophic impact on unsuspecting individuals and families has not been limited to just trains burning chemicals into the air in the backyards of our friends and neighbors.

Recently, a woman by the name of Rebecca Kiessling attended a congressional hearing to plead with our federal government to take control of our southern border. She told of the horrors that fentanyl poisoning has imposed on thousands of innocent families over the last few years — including hers. In 2020, Kiessling lost her two sons, Caleb, 20, and Kyler, 18, to fentanyl, as they purchased pills that they thought were Percocet, only to discover too late that what they received was laced with this lethal drug.

Kiessling’s experience reflects the horror that thousands of U.S. parents have faced, as they have lost their own children to the same fate as her sons in the last two years. Yet President Joe Biden responded to her criticism of his role in this crisis by mocking her loss, blaming Donald Trump, and chuckling at the idea that he’s responsible in any way for what’s happening.

The chemical disaster and the fentanyl crisis are only two of the health emergencies that have garnered little to no response from the federal government, leaving American families to face the fallout on their own. The response to suffering families has been the common denominator, serving as an indicator of what the rest of us can expect if it’s our own community or household that happens to be the next one leveled by a crippling emergency — total negligence and abandonment.

Of all the failures of the Biden administration — its activists, lobbyists, stakeholders, and allies over the last two years — the America-last sentiment that this body of officials has toward U.S. citizens and its utter disregard for the well-being and care of its own people is undeniable.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that in order to get attention for the things we are facing, we need to start identifying ourselves as fully vaxxed and boosted transgender Ukrainians.